Xylose is a compound that is used in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, sugar substitutes for diabetics, and as an intermediate in making furfural. Furfural has been made by a variety of methods.
“Quaker Oats” used cereal processing reactors for the first industrial production of furfural. Later on, Rosenlew and Wyss were able to produce furfural from wood pulp processing reactors. These reactors are able to produce furfural but with very low productivity.
Since then many inventors have tried to increase the productivity of furfural by using mineral acids and other costly reactants. For examples, U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,928 describes the process of manufacturing furfural using acidic conditions; U.S. Pat. No. 6,642,396 describes the production of furfural from lignosulphonate waste liquor; U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,812 describes the method of recovering furfural from organic pulping liquor; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,322 describes the method of production of furfural from vegetable matter.
Production of furfural has great importance because of its industrial utility. However, there have been many problems reported for the production of furfurals from xylose. One problem is the mineral acid-containing aqueous mediums which have been used as the catalyst. Higher hydrogen ion concentration promotes the first order mechanism for furfural destruction. Higher concentration of furfural is another setback in its formation. It has been reported that at fixed acid concentration and temperature, the rate of the destruction of furfural is directly proportional to the concentration of furfural. Because of these reasons, furfural is easily decomposed and polymerized in the conditions necessary for its formation.
What is needed is a new process for producing furfural from xylose.